The Conversation – Canada – Page 14

October 7, 2025

AI tools promise efficiency at work, but they can erode trust, creativity and agency

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jordan Loewen-Colón, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, Ontario

What if your biggest competitive asset is not how fast AI helps you work, but how well you question what it produces?

Business leaders tend to prioritize efficiency and compliance in the workplace. It’s one of the reasons why so many are drawn toward incorporating generative AI technologies into their workflows. A recent survey found 63 per cent of global IT leaders worry their companies will be left behind without AI adoption.

But in the rush to adopt AI, some organizations are overlooking the real impact it can have on workers and company culture.

Most organizational strategies focus on AI’s short-term efficiencies, such as automation, speed and cost saving. What tends to be overlooked are the impacts AI has on cognition, agency and cultural norms. AI is fundamentally restructuring not only what we know, but how we know it.

As AI becomes more integrated, it will continue to influence organizational tone, pace, communication style and decision-making norms. This is why leaders must set deliberate boundaries and consciously shape organizational culture in relation to AI integration.

Once embedded into workflows, AI influences workplace defaults: which sources appear first, what tone a memo takes and where managers set the bar for “good enough.” If people don’t set these defaults, tools like AI will instead.

As researchers who study AI, psychology, human-computer interaction and ethics, we are deeply concerned with the hidden effects and consequences of AI use.

Psychological effects of AI at work

Researchers are beginning to document a number of psychological effects associated with AI use in the workplace. These impacts expose current gaps in epistemic awareness — how we know what we know — and how those gaps can weaken emotional boundaries.

Such shifts can affect how people make decisions, calibrate trust and maintain psychological safety in AI-mediated environments.

One of the most prominent effects is known as “automation bias.” Once AI is integrated into a company’s workflow, its outputs are often internalized as authoritative sources of truth.

Because AI-generated outputs appear fluent and objective, they can be accepted uncritically, creating an inflated sense of confidence and a dangerous illusion of competence.

One recent study found that in 40 per cent of tasks, knowledge workers — those who turn information into decisions or deliverables, like writers, analysts and designers — accepted AI outputs uncritically with zero scrutiny.

The erosion of self-trust

A second concern is the erosion of self-trust. Continuous engagement with AI-generated content leads workers to second-guess their instincts and over-rely on AI guidance, often without realizing it. Over time, work shifts from generating ideas to merely approving AI-generated ones. This results in the diminishing of personal judgment, creativity and original authorship.

One study found that users have a tendency to follow AI advice even when it contradicts their own judgment, resulting in a decline in confidence and autonomous decision-making. Other research shows that when AI systems provide affirming feedback — even for incorrect answers — users become more confident in their decisions, which can distort their judgment.

Workers can end up deferring to AI as an authority despite its lack of lived experience, moral reasoning or contextual understanding. Productivity may appear higher in the short term, but the quality of decisions, self-trust and ethical oversight may ultimately suffer.

Emerging evidence also points to neurological effects of over-reliance on AI use. One recent emerging study tracked professionals’ brain activity over four months and found that ChatGPT users exhibited 55 per cent less neural connectivity compared to those working unassisted. They struggled to remember the essays they just co-authored moments later, as well reduced creative engagement.

So what can leaders and managers do about it?

What leaders and managers can do

Resilience has become something of a corporate buzzword, but genuine resilience can help organizations adapt to AI.

Resilient organizations teach employees to effectively collaborate with AI without over-relying on its outputs. This requires systematic training in interpretive and critical skills to build balanced and ethical human-AI collaboration.

Organizations that value critique over passive acceptance will become better at thinking critically, adapting knowledge effectively and will build stronger ethical capacity. One way of achieving this is by shifting from a growth-oriented mindset to an adaptive one. Which, practically speaking, means workplaces should seek to do the following:

Train people to separate fluency from accuracy and to ask where information comes from rather than just being passive consumers of it. With better epistemic awareness, workers become active interpreters understanding what an AI tool is saying, as well as how and why it’s saying it.
Teach people to monitor their thinking processes and question knowledge sources. A recent study showed professionals with strong metacognitive practices, like planning, self-monitoring and prompt revision, achieved significantly higher creativity when using AI tools, while others saw no benefit. That means metacognition could be the “missing link” for productive LLM use.
Avoid a one-size-fits-all approach and consider levels of automation by task stages. AI tool developers should be encouraged to define clear roles for when the model drafts or analyzes, when the human leads and when verification is mandatory. Consider adding things like AI-use to responsibility and accountability charts.
Create workplace cultures that encourage workers to question AI outputs, track those challenges as quality signals and budget time for verification. Workplaces should publish style norms for AI-assisted writing, set confidence thresholds and evidence requirements by function, and specify who signs off at each risk level.
Hold quarterly “drift reviews” to spot shifts in tone, reliance or bias, before they calcify into organizational culture.

Efficiency will not decide the winners

As we are starting to see, the drive for efficiency will not decide which firms are most successful; the ability to interpret and critically assess AI outputs will.

The companies that pair speed with skepticism and protect judgment as a first-class asset will handle volatility better than those that treat AI as an autopilot. Speed may get you to the next decision, but judgment keeps you in business.

Ethical intelligence in organizations requires an ongoing investment in epistemic awareness, interpretive skill, psychological safety and active value-driven design.

Companies capable of balancing technological innovation with critical thinking and deep ethical understanding will be the ones to thrive in the AI era.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. AI tools promise efficiency at work, but they can erode trust, creativity and agency – https://theconversation.com/ai-tools-promise-efficiency-at-work-but-they-can-erode-trust-creativity-and-agency-264865

October 7, 2025

Epstein’s ‘birthday book’ transforms private notes into a legacy record

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jason Wang, Postdoctoral Fellow, Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre, Toronto Metropolitan University

The United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform recently released a 238-page album, compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell in 2003 for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday. On Oct. 6, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Maxwell’s appeal of her 2022 conviction for sex trafficking girls with Epstein.

The release of the partially redacted album is part of a larger investigation of the federal government’s handling of Epstein and Maxwell and “possible mismanagement.”

The album is in the spotlight due to an entry allegedly penned by U.S. President Donald Trump, though the White House has denied he wrote it. Entitled The First Fifty Years, the book overflows with handwritten letters, campy sketches and images fixated on women’s bodies.

The book was bound by Weitz & Coleman, an esteemed bookbinder in New York City since 1909, as indicated by a note within the album itself.

Its “vegetable tanned” leather covers, table of contents and sections titled “Family,” “Friends” and “Business” signal an intent to elevate casual notes into a permanent record.

As book historian D.F. McKenzie contends, a book’s physical form shapes its social role. Here, the elaborate binding and careful organization transform private, ephemeral notes into a social gesture, something shared in a legacy format.

In this sense, Epstein’s album sits alongside a tradition of bound tribute books — scrapbooks pressed into leather for golden anniversaries, glossy volumes marking a CEO’s retirement or academic festschrifts that canonize a career. What unites them is the transformation of passing moments into artifacts meant to endure.

Charm, codes, clichés

Maxwell’s prologue describes the book as a retrospective to “jog your memory of places and people and different events.”

In the birthday book, one redacted former “assistant” recalls how working for Epstein transformed her life: she went from being “a 22-year-old divorcée working as a hotel hostess” to rubbing shoulders with royalty, presidents, financiers and celebrities.

One letter from a childhood friend who recently said Maxwell instructed him to write something “raunchy” spins a sexually explicit fantasy about Epstein’s conception before drifting into nostalgic tales of their four-boy Brooklyn clique.

In one vignette, Epstein is praised for flaunting a “beautiful British babe” at his family’s home, his indifference to her feelings reframed as charm. The anecdote turns callousness toward women into a badge of confidence and belonging. The letter concludes: “That shows a lot. It really does … Yes, your charisma and persuasive ways came very early on … you’re my kid’s role model.”

Epstein’s sex life and treatment of women are recurring themes.

A note apparently from private equity investor Leon Black, who was earlier found to have paid millions in fees to Epstein, cast Epstein as Ernest Hemingway’s hero in The Old Man and the Sea, swapping fish for “Blonde, Red or Brunette” women.

Philosophers and scholars of rhetoric have long noted that ready-made clichés can replace inner reflection, forming a “code of expression” that insulates people from moral reckoning.

Laughter as defence

If language conveys loyalty, humour compounds it. Composed in 2003, as Epstein’s notoriety grew, today — amid the knowledge of Epstein’s sex crimes — the birthday book’s laughter seems knowingly defensive.

There are bawdy jokes and mocking nicknames: Epstein is dubbed “Degenerate One” and teased or taunted with “so many girls, so little time.”

As French philosopher Henri Bergson argued, laughter functions as a social corrective: a “kind of social ragging” that polices behaviour by ridiculing deviation under the guise of amusement.

One birthday book contributor quips that Epstein had “avoided the penitentiary.” The comment implies knowledge of punishable behaviour, yet also suggests Epstein is an affable rogue.

Figures of authority

The book’s inclusion of entries from public office and science figures could suggest Maxwell and Epstein sought to keep or commemorate connections with figures of authority as a form of perceived legitimacy.

The Wall Street Journal reported that former U.S. president Bill Clinton, whose name appears in the album’s “Friends” section, gave Epstein a handwritten note praising his “childlike curiosity” and drive to “make a difference.” In 2019, a spokesperson for Clinton said he severed ties with Epstein prior to his 2019 arrest and he was not aware of Epstein’s alleged crimes.

Peter Mandelson, recently forced out as the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the U.S. after the Epstein birthday book’s release, penned a note saying Epstein was an “intelligent, sharp-witted man.” Mandelson has said he felt tremendous regret over his Epstein friendship and sympathy for Epstein’s victims.

The birthday book’s “Science” section, with letters from leading scientists, shows that Epstein’s reach extended beyond business and politics into elite academic networks.

Eroticized power and dominance

While some entries strike a mundane or playful tone, others veer into vulgarity.

The former CEO of Victoria’s Secret, Leslie Wexner, contributed a sketch resembling a woman’s breasts with the words “I wanted to get you what you want… so here it is” — framing it as a present. Wexner has said before he severed ties with Epstein in 2007 and declined to comment about the book.

The note allegedly written by Trump features a drawing of a naked woman alongside typewritten text imagining a conversation between them. It calls Epstein “a pal” and ends with the wish that “every day be another wonderful secret.”

Former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold contributed a series of African wildlife photographs, claiming they spoke more vividly than words. The images — of copulating lions and a zebra with an erect penis — foreground predatory and sexualized behaviour, and may be interpreted as reflecting a fascination with dominance and raw biological impulse.

The Seattle Times reports that a spokesperson for Myhrvold said Myhrvold knew Epstein “from TED conferences and as a donor to basic scientific research” and “regrets that he ever met him.” The representative did not address the letter.

The legacy of small gestures

While journalists have long documented that Epstein’s networks stretched from political leaders and Wall Street financiers to influential figures in science and culture, it remains to be seen how the carefully curated and gifted birthday book fits into the larger investigation.

The book’s most insidious achievement is its ordinariness. It suggests the ways that power is fortified and legitimized not only with contracts and institutions but through gestures of social life, including commemorative books.

Jason Wang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Epstein’s ‘birthday book’ transforms private notes into a legacy record – https://theconversation.com/epsteins-birthday-book-transforms-private-notes-into-a-legacy-record-265715

October 7, 2025

Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes — no wonder we’re addicted

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Stephen Monteiro, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Concordia University

The frequency and length of daily phone use continues to rise, especially among young people. It’s a global concern, driving recent decisions to ban phones in schools in Canada, the United States and elsewhere.

Social media, gaming, streaming and interacting with AI chatbots all contribute to this pull on our attention. But we need to look at the phones themselves to get the bigger picture.

As I argue in my newly published book, Needy Media: How Tech Gets Personal, our phones — and more recently, our watches — have become animated beings in our lives. These devices can build bonds with us by recognizing our presence and reacting to our bodies.

Packed with a growing range of technical features that target our sensory and psychological soft spots, smartphones create comforting ties that keep us picking them up. The emotional cues designed into these objects and interfaces imply that they need our attention, while in actuality, the devices are soaking up our data.

A responsive presence

Face recognition, geolocation, touchscreens, vibration, sound alerts and audio and motion sensing all play their part in catching our attention and responding to our actions. Separately, these may not create a strong emotional attachment, but collectively they situate the phone as a uniquely intimate, sensitive and knowing presence in our lives.

Take facial recognition locks, for example. Convenient for quick access, a smartphone will light up and unlock with a glance when it encounters a known and trusted face. When introducing Face ID in 2017, Apple claimed: “Do it up anyway you do it, Face ID learns your face. It learns who you are.” This implies a deeper user-device connection, like the one we have with folks we know when we spot them crossing our path.

Some devices have repurposed the hand wave — a typical gesture of friendship — into a feature that triggers the camera to take a photo.

Geolocation converts networking signals into a dot on a map, and we see that dot as us — not our phone — just as we may see the dots of our friends’ phones on the map as them.

Phantom vibrations

Sensory cues play a strong role. Touchscreens allow the phone’s interface to react subtly, like edge lighting and rubberbanding, to mimic the pliability of skin.

Vibration and sound alerts make us highly sensitive to the smallest movement or sound from the device. This produces conditions like phantom vibration syndrome, where we imagine that the device requires our attention, even when it doesn’t.

Audio and motion sensing, on the other hand, allows the device to react to us almost instantly, as when it lowers its ringing on an incoming call when we grab its body.

three people sitting on a train with their mobile phones in hand — Phones are constant companions as we move through our days.
(Muradi/Unsplash), CC BY

Roots and origins

Most of these features were developed decades ago for other uses. GPS was created by the U.S. military in the early 1970s, then was adopted by hikers and sailors to both navigate and to allow others to locate them if necessary.

Vibration alerts were created for pagers in the late 1970s for professionals — from hospital staff to travelling salespeople — to notify them of an important phone call.

Sound alerts became more widespread with Tamagotchi and other 1990s digital pets. Those toys are especially significant when discussing today’s psychological dependency on portable devices.

Through their beeping cries for attention, Tamagotchi trained millions of school-age millennials to build emotional attachments to virtual handheld companions needing care and nurturing. Not surprisingly, these toys were banned in many schools for their tendency to disrupt classes and distract students.

Indiscriminate tracking

Phones have become an essential part of who we are and how we behave. But there’s also an issue of privacy around our most intimate actions and behaviours. Sensors keep sensing, measuring sounds, movements and proximity.

There is the risk that our dependency will intensify as phones learn things about us that have, until recently, been off limits.

Sleep is a good example. Audio and motion sensing allows the device to get a reasonable picture of when and how we sleep, often collecting and sharing biometric data through pre-loaded health and wellness apps.

Another example is more sophisticated facial recognition, that will not only be able to recognize a face, but also analyze expressions to determine alertness or mood.

All of this collected data may have profound consequences, making our bodily behaviour, our off-line interactions with others and our emotional fragility a regular part of the data profiles used to leverage our lives for corporate profit.

Managing dependency

Short of powering off or walking away, what can we do to manage this dependency? We can access device settings and activate only those features we truly require, adjusting them now and again as our habits and lifestyles change.

Turning on geolocation only when we need navigation support, for example, increases privacy and helps break the belief that a phone and a user are an inseparable pair. Limiting sound and haptic alerts can gain us some independence, while opting for a passcode over facial recognition locks reminds us the device is a machine and not a friend. This may also make it harder for others to access the device.

So-called “dumb phones” limit what a user can do with their devices, though that’s a tough sell when 24/7 connectivity is becoming an expectation.

Manufacturers can do their part by placing more invasive device settings in the “off” position in the factory and being more transparent about their potential uses and data liabilities. That’s not likely to happen, however, without stronger government regulation that puts users and their data first.

In the meantime, at a minimum, we should broaden our public discussions of dependency beyond social media, gaming and artificial intelligence to acknowledge how phones, in themselves, can capture our attention and cultivate our loyalty.

Stephen Monteiro does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes — no wonder we’re addicted – https://theconversation.com/smartphones-manipulate-our-emotions-and-trigger-our-reflexes-no-wonder-were-addicted-265014

October 7, 2025

The H-1B visa fee hike in the United States opens a policy window for Canada

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Richa Shivakoti, Research Lead, Migration Governance at the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration & Integration program, Toronto Metropolitan University

The MaRS urban innovation hub building in Toronto. Canada may benefit from the American H-1B visa fee increase by attracting highly skilled tech workers and others from abroad to Canada instead of the United States. (WikiMedia), CC BY

The United States government recently announced a US$100,000 H-1B visa fee on new applications, which will affect highly educated workers from abroad who are seeking jobs in the U.S. This policy could have ripple effects for Canada by reducing the emigration of Canadians going to work in the U.S. — and by attracting a talented workforce to the country.

The H-1B visa program was created in 1990 for applicants with at least a bachelor’s degree or higher to work in the U.S. The current annual statutory cap is 65,000 visas, with 20,000 additional visas for professionals from abroad who graduate with a master’s or doctorate from an American institution of higher learning.

The recent announcement regarding the fee increase has astounded tech companies that have long relied on the visa to employ foreign workers in the U.S. Since 2012, about 60 per cent of H-1B workers approved each year have held a tech-related job. Tech companies have been pushing U.S. Congress to expand the visa program due to the high demand and competition for the H-1B.

Instead, this massive increase in fees will make it much more expensive for firms to hire highly educated and skilled immigrants.

The impact on Canadians

Approximately 828,000 Canadian-born immigrants lived in the U.S. as of 2023, many of whom moved to the country via employment channels. Canadians made up one per cent of the total H-1B applications in 2019, and the new H-1B visa fee could reduce the number of Canadians moving to the U.S. for work.

This is especially true in the tech sector, as noted by Prime Minister Mark Carney in his recent remarks at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York:

“We are a leading developer of AI. And our research universities are some of the biggest producers in volume of AI, computing and quantum talent in the world. Unfortunately, most of them go to the United States. I understand you’re changing your visa policy, I hear, so going to hang onto a few of those.”

But another possibility is that American businesses could shift towards using the TN visa — an American non-immigrant visa for citizens of Canada and Mexico to work in specific professional-level jobs — to hire more Canadian workers. Canadians are eligible for the work permit under the Canada-US-Mexico-trade agreement.

These companies could then bypass paying the new H-1B visa fee while still hiring Canadian talent.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s full remarks to the Council of Foreign relations. (Reuters)

Competition for global talent

Various countries, including Canada, are competing to attract and retain global talent. For many highly educated people from abroad seeking work in the U.S., especially recent international graduates of American universities, the new visa fee might result in fewer employment opportunities. As they start to look elsewhere, Canada could be an attractive destination if immigration pathways can be provided in a timely fashion.

Research has also shown that when faced with restrictions on immigration policies to hire skilled immigrants, U.S.-based multinational companies have responded by decreasing the number of jobs they offer in the U.S. and by increasing foreign affiliate employment, particularly in India, China and Canada.

So Canada should be proactive in working with these companies as they plan alternate pathways to retain their workforce.

This sudden and drastic change in the H-1B visa fee by the Donald Trump government presents a window of opportunity for Canadian policymakers to react quickly and offer pathways to recruit such foreign talent. The Canadian government seems to be paying attention. Carney told a recent news conference in London:

“Not as many of those people are going to get visas to the United States. And these are people with lots of skills that are enterprising, and they’re willing to move to work …. So it’s an opportunity for Canada, and we’re going to take that into account. And we’ll have a clear offering on that.”

Crises can create opportunities

A policy window opens when there is the right combination of recognizing a problem and providing a feasible policy solution while there is a favourable political climate. This allows policymakers to link the problem to a solution and advocate for change.

In the current environment, policy officials inside and outside of government can provide ideas on creating targeted policies and pathways to recruit talented workers to Canada.

An example of such a targeted initiative was seen in 2023, when the Canadian government, while announcing its Tech Talent Strategy, introduced a program that allowed H-1B visa holders to apply to receive an open three-year work permit in Canada.

It became clear that Canada was regarded as a popular alternative when applications closed within 24 hours after the maximum number of 10,000 applications was reached.

Richa Shivakoti receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council.

Anna Triandafyllidou receives funding for research related to high-skilled migration and its governance from the Tri-Council Agency and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as well as Horizon Europe (Link4Skills research project).

– ref. The H-1B visa fee hike in the United States opens a policy window for Canada – https://theconversation.com/the-h-1b-visa-fee-hike-in-the-united-states-opens-a-policy-window-for-canada-266518

October 6, 2025

Anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism is on the rise in Canada

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Nadia Hasan, Assistant Professor, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, York University, Canada

In April 2024, a video circulated online showing an Oakville, Ont. high school teacher and a student having an alarming and contentious conversation about his keffiyeh.

The Iroquois Ridge High School educator says mid-way in the clip: “I didn’t call you a terrorist. I said it (the keffiyeh) reminds me of …” When the student pushes her to finish her sentence and suggests “Hamas?” she answers “yes.”

The Halton District School Board (HDSB) quickly placed the staff member on leave and launched an investigation, deeming her language “harmful and discriminatory.”

This incident, a clear example of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, is one of many detailed in our recently released Islamophobia Research Hub report, Documenting the “Palestine Exception”: An Overview of Trends in Islamophobia, Anti-Palestinian and Anti-Arab Racism in Canada in the Aftermath of October 7, 2023.

Our findings point to a pattern of unethical use of institutional power to intimidate and alienate those expressing support for Palestine or their identities — what many community organizers in Canada now call “the Palestine exception.”

What is the Palestine exception?

The expression describes how democratic freedoms and multicultural ideals historically meet their limits when it comes to Palestinian human rights, history and identity. Studies in Canada and the United States show systemic silencing and erasure of Palestinian experiences — often through unfounded accusations of antisemitism.

Race scholars have long argued that Canadian multiculturalism practises inclusion through exclusion, demanding that racialized people suppress parts of their identity to gain conditional belonging in order to uphold a normative racial order.

For Palestinians in Canada, this often means hiding their heritage for fear of stigmatization, or facing punishment for expressing pro-Palestinian views.

As Nihad Jasser of the Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians, an Ottawa-based community collective, said:

“It feels that institutions in our society will support all human rights except Palestinian human rights, celebrate all cultures except Palestinian culture, and condemn all forms of racism except anti-Palestinian racism.”

Unfair targeting, censorship and discipline of those speaking out for Palestinian rights — or merely perceived as Palestinian, Arab or Muslim — is a common theme in our report and particularly disturbing in terms of young people’s experiences.

A pattern of targeting young people

According to our research, young people in schools, universities and early careers are facing Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Arab racism in the form of employment discrimination, doxing, hate-motivated violence, bullying and the suppression of their democratic rights.

The HDSB keffiyeh incident reflects a wider reality: a treatment of suspicion toward Palestinian expressions.

Another example that drew attention was a Toronto District School Board (TDSB) field trip to the Indigenous-led Grassy Narrows River Run in September 2024. During the march, some participants used chants connecting settler colonialism in Canada to the experiences of Palestinians.

This led to social media backlash from parents who claimed the trip exposed students to pro-Palestinian political activity and compromised safety. The Ontario education minister’s office demanded an investigation — an unusual move that many felt revealed a double standard compared to other incidents.

The TDSB issued an apology for the “harm” caused and pre-emptively cancelled another planned field trip for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation — ironically undermining commitments to decolonization.

Patrick Case, a former Ontario Ministry of Education chief equity officer, conducted an independent review, interviewing 146 parents, students, Indigenous leaders, staff and trustees. His report found that the Grassy Narrows event was not overshadowed by pro-Palestinian activism and that the TDSB’s reaction reflected a broader pattern of erasure and suspicion toward Palestinian identity.

Indigenous leaders also noted that media outrage diverted attention from pressing issues of environmental justice in Indigenous communities.

Despite these findings, the education ministry has not promoted the report and has rejected some of its key recommendations.

Punishment over pedagogy

Our report raises concerns about a growing political culture that punishes rather than engages young people advocating for Palestinian human rights. Instead of fostering critical thinking, institutions are choosing repression.

Another striking example is the treatment of students at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University, who were accused of antisemitism for signing an open letter in solidarity with Palestinian people and critical of Israeli state actions. Several law firms and the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General blacklisted them from recruitment as punishment for signing the open letter.

In an external review, Justice J. Michael MacDonald condemned this response as a “rush to judgment” that unfairly targeted “young idealists motivated by immense human suffering.” He ruled that the students’ actions were a “valid exercise of freedom of speech” and criticized the administration for negatively impacting the students.

He also criticized members of the legal community for fuelling the backlash against these students. Some of these students are now suing Toronto Metropolitan University for defamation.

Many young people have shown resilience in the face of such repression, but the harm is undeniable. Being punished for expressing solidarity with Palestinians — and witnessing peers being punished — affects young people’s sense of safety, intellectual curiosity and career prospects.

Protecting Canadian multiculturalism

Two years into the brutal genocide in Gaza, there is a notable shift in public discourse and policy related to Palestine. Yet many remain deeply skeptical of the sincerity of this shift.

Earlier this fall, the federal Liberal government introduced the Combating Hate Act, proposing amendments to the Criminal Code.

Critics warn these changes could further curtail civil liberties, particularly around expressions of Palestinian identity and solidarity.

The amendments would ban the public display of “hate symbols” and criminalize protests near places of worship, schools and community centres. The government defines hate symbols as those associated with terrorist entities such as the Nazi swastika and SS (Schutzstaffel) bolts. And so, understandably, questions abound about whether this means that Palestinian flags or the script of the shahada (Muslim declaration of faith) could be deemed hate symbols.

Given recent institutional responses to pro-Palestinian expression, there is little confidence these sorts of laws will not be weaponized to criminalize Palestinian identity, dissent and criticism of the Israeli state.

In large part, this pervasive suspicion stems from the widespread experience of Palestinian identity and pro-Palestinian positions being treated as inherently suspect, even dangerous. Such exceptional treatment exposes the profound fissures — and in fact the limits — of Canadian multiculturalism and its professed commitments to democratic freedoms.

Nadia Hasan receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Canadian Heritage, The Muslim Fund, the Bay Tree Foundation and The Olive Tree Foundation.

Sarah Abou-Bakr does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism is on the rise in Canada – https://theconversation.com/anti-palestinian-and-anti-arab-racism-is-on-the-rise-in-canada-266637

October 6, 2025

Ontario’s colleges were founded to serve local and regional needs — have we forgotten that?

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Emilda Thavaratnam, PhD student, Leadership and Higher Education, University of Toronto

The establishment of Ontario’s colleges of applied arts and technology 60 years ago marked a pivotal moment in the province’s educational history. The founding vision was based on principles of accessibility and community, as colleges were designed to strengthen Ontario’s growing social and economic fabric.

Today, this promise is unravelling. Students now face limited program choices with the cancellation or suspension of 600 programs over the past year, rising fees and mounting debt, while faculty and staff contend with precarious contracts and widespread layoffs.

As students settle into fall semesters, it’s essential to reflect on the history of Ontario’s colleges in order to envision a future that safeguards the public mission on which these institutions were founded.

Founding vision

Ontario redefined post-secondary education in 1965 by creating a new college system under the leadership of William G. Davis, then the province’s education minister, later its premier. This marked a turning point in Ontario’s educational history and the birth of the college system.

In response to the province’s rapid demographic and economic shifts, Davis proposed a model of affordable, accessible vocational education aimed at preparing students for the workforce.

The foundational principles emphasized that college programs should be “occupation-oriented” and “designed to meet the needs of the local community”;
Additionally, the plans highlighted there should be a “close relationship between any college program and the long-term economic development plans for a particular region” to respond to immediate labour market demands and broader societal needs, including arts, health, science and technical fields.

This approach ensured that the founding vision was connected to regional development, allowing colleges to address Ontario’s diverse social, economic and cultural needs across multiple sectors.

In a 1967 Department of Education publication, Davis cited an earlier 1964 report that named the unique role that colleges would play:

“In the present crisis .. we must turn our attention to the post-secondary level, where we must create a new kind of institution that will provide, in the interests of students for whom a university course is unsuitable, a type of training which universities are not designed to offer.”

This mandate gave colleges their distinctive purpose of filling gaps that universities were never meant to address.

Economic and social development

There are now 24 colleges with campuses in 200 communities throughout Ontario. This college system plays a vital role in the province’s education and economy.

Davis’s legacy is evident in the generations of students who have attended these institutions. Since 2018, an average of 140,000 people have graduated annually from Ontario’s colleges.

It is reported that an average of 83 per cent of Ontario college graduates are employed within six months of graduation. These outcomes highlight the pivotal role that colleges play in contributing to Ontario’s economic and social development.

Shifts in funding

The financial foundation of Ontario colleges has shifted dramatically over the past six decades. When colleges were first established most operating expenses were financed by the province, with tuition contributing to a lesser extent.

By the late 1980s, however, per-student funding had already fallen by roughly one-third. The trend accelerated in 1995 when $120 million was cut. Rather than raising tuition directly, colleges responded by introducing ancillary fees, expanding international student enrolment, postponing capital projects and turning to private funding.

From the 1990s onward, tuition increasingly replaced public investment as the financial backbone of the college system. Data from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario illustrates that between 1992 and 2008, total college revenue rose from $972 million to $1.6 billion, but this growth was driven primarily by student fees. Tuition revenue more than tripled during this period, while government funding shrank as a proportion of overall revenue.

This reliance on student-paid fees deepened in the following decade. Between 2010-11 and 2022-23, provincial grants per student operating revenue (adjusted for inflation) declined by 29 per cent, while tuition revenue once again tripled.

By 2022-23, Ontario colleges received approximately $11,081 per full-time-equivalent student, compared to the national average of $19,292. This figure is just 56 per cent of the Canadian average across provinces.

A 2023 provincial report, Ensuring Financial Sustainability for Ontario’s Post-Secondary Sector, confirms the crisis surrounding underfunding.

What does this mean for students?

These funding changes have reshaped the classroom experience. For students, this means higher tuition and shifted program priorities that limit access and opportunity.

For the public, it’s the loss of an original promise of accessible vocational education. Rising tuition fees have created barriers to access, especially for low-income, first-generation Canadian students.

At the same time, the Ontario government has framed college funding heavily around immediate provincial and national economic pressures, for example in trades and construction, as well as STEM and health care.

While public funding of colleges has been eroded, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union reports that Ontario has also spent significant funds cultivating “non-college training providers and projects” through a Skills Development Fund.

It also notes that while public colleges are required to disclose a great deal about their funding and outcomes:

“… very little is known about the funding levels, training quality or employment outcomes of SDF-funded projects. Instead, the province relies on campaign-style funding announcements, often showcasing private companies receiving multi-million dollar training grants.”

Move away from founding vision

Davis’s founding vision was rooted in regional development. Programs were designed to serve the long-term needs of communities, including the arts, local culture and community services. The goal was to strengthen entire regions and broaden opportunities through a balanced system that reflected both economic and social priorities.

This shift reflects the broader marketization of higher education. Education is valued less for cultivating critical thinking, civic participation and community life and more for producing workers to meet short-term market needs.

For students, this means diminishing autonomy as their choices are increasingly shaped by labour market pressures rather than broader civic needs and personal vocational interests. These funding trends raise concerns about the fate of a broader range of programs that sustain the social fabric of communities.

Ongoing college support staff strike

Finally, these policy shifts ignore the immediate impact on students, faculty and staff. The ongoing support staff strike at Ontario colleges is one expression of these pressures, and its complexity deserves discussion beyond the scope of this piece.

The question remains: where is our government in all this, and what will be done to save our colleges?

Today, Davis’s legacy is being dismantled by chronic underfunding. The future of our colleges depends on renewal. We must reclaim these values and call on our federal and provincial leaders to support a truly public system of higher education that serves the communities it was created to serve.

Emilda Thavaratnam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Ontario’s colleges were founded to serve local and regional needs — have we forgotten that? – https://theconversation.com/ontarios-colleges-were-founded-to-serve-local-and-regional-needs-have-we-forgotten-that-262760

October 6, 2025

More than a quarter of Canadian teens have experienced sexual violence online

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Charlotte Nau, PhD Candidate in Media Studies, Western University

Technology-facilitated sexual violence includes harmful practices such as sexual name-calling, rumour spreading, non-consensual distribution of nudes, and other forms of sexual harassment. (imgix/Unsplash), CC BY

Law enforcement agencies across Canada are sounding the alarm over a rise in sexual extortion (“sextortion”) against young people.

The problem goes far beyond sextortion, as this is only one form of many variations of online sexual harms that target youth today. Teenagers in Canada can be victims of sexual catfishing, AI-generated sexual deepfakes and violent extremism.

Some high-profile sextortion incidents include the deaths by suicide of Rehtaeh Parsons, Amanda Todd, Daniel Lints and a boy in British Columbia.

The scale of the problem

Technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) includes harmful practices such as sexual name-calling and rumour spreading, non-consensual distribution of intimate images (nudes) and other forms of sexual harassment.

Our research team recently conducted a survey with more than 1,000 teens aged 13 to 18 across Canada to learn about youths’ experiences with TFSV.

Our findings underscore how widespread these harms are: more than a quarter of the teens (28 per cent) reported experiencing at least one form of TFSV.

In addition to so many youth experiencing TFSV, almost half (47 per cent) said that TFSV had happened to someone they knew. The most common forms of TFSV reported in our survey were receiving unwanted sexual images (15 per cent), encountering unwanted porn (13 per cent) and being sexually harassed online (11 per cent).

Online platforms

We also asked the teens which social media sites and online gaming services had the most sexual harassment. The platform they mentioned most often was Snapchat, followed by TikTok and Instagram. Snapchat has been known for its potential risks to youth and privacy concerns.

Girls experienced TFSV at a higher rate (32 per cent) than boys (23 per cent), which is consistent with research from Statistics Canada.

Teens who said they were neurodivergent or had a learning disability were more likely to be subjected to TFSV (39 per cent). TFSV was also higher among teens with a mental health condition (40 per cent).

These findings are consistent with previous research that showed higher victimization rates among people with disabilities.

A small but significant number of teens (seven per cent) reported committing at least one form of TFSV. This was more common among boys (nine per cent) than girls (six per cent).

Insufficient support

Parents and guardians were the most relevant source of support for teens who had been subjected to TFSV. Nearly half (44 per cent) of the teens turned to them, and most of these teens found them helpful.

The teens were much less likely to seek support from institutions. Only about one in 10 (12 per cent) told someone at their school, with only seven per cent telling the police. Unfortunately, these numbers are consistent with other statistics, as most people do not report sexual violence to the police.

Young people showed little confidence in the reporting tools and moderation systems of social media platforms. As little as five per cent of the teens had used these to report sexually harmful materials. Almost one in three teens (29 per cent) thought that the digital platforms should do a better job supporting them.

This finding is important to consider as social media companies are dropping content moderation, making their platforms possibly more hazardous for youth.

Teens’ misconceptions

Most teens (90 per cent and up) knew that several forms of TFSV were illegal in Canada. However, they were less certain when asked if it was legal to create a fake sexual video of someone. This is unsurprising: legal views of sexual deepfakes vary by province. Some allow civil action, while others treat it as child pornography.

The teens’ knowledge of the law was incomplete in other areas. Almost two-thirds (61 per cent) thought that sending a nude picture of themselves to other youth was illegal. This is not true. Minors can share sexual images with each other as long as they are consensual and kept private between them; that most teens don’t know this is troubling.

Sexting and sharing nudes is a common form of sexual expression among teens. In our survey, teens who though that nude image sharing was illegal were less likely to seek help with TFSV.

Some teens (26 per cent) thought that taking a nude picture of themselves was illegal. This is also incorrect.

These misconceptions matter, as young people need to be informed about their legal rights to sexual expression. Proper education will prevent shame, fear and other barriers to seeking support when someone is distributing their images against their will or coercing them into harmful practices.

phone screen showing the Snapchat download page — The use of Snapchat by teens has raised concerns about its potential risks and privacy issues.
(Souvik Banerjee/Unsplash), CC BY

An urgent issue

Social media and other forms of digital communication are central to young people’s lives, which means that addressing TFSV is an urgent issue. While the federal government and some provincial governments have taken steps or proposed legislation aimed at protecting youth, some responses have been proven to be unrealistic and ineffective.

Governments — and tech companies in particular — need to do more to prevent TFSV and support youth who experience it.

Schools can also take action to help youth. However, there is considerable variation in the TFSV responses and interventions within educational curricula, policies and legislation across the provinces and territories. This means that even though TFSV is a common problem, most parents, teachers, police and frontline workers lack the resources and strategies needed to respond effectively and promptly.

Our findings highlight the impact of these shortcomings on teens, as many youth in our survey did not receive help for TFSV, even when they sought it out. In many instances, telling others actually made the situation worse.

TFSV is a gendered problem that disproportionately impacts certain groups. It is important to keep in mind who is most at risk when developing TFSV resources and interventions.

We believe that with evidence-informed and co-ordinated action from the private and public sectors, young people can live in a digital world where they feel safe online and can easily access effective resources and support.

Charlotte Nau receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Christopher Dietzel receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Estefanía Reyes receives funding from the International Development Research Center (IDRC).

– ref. More than a quarter of Canadian teens have experienced sexual violence online – https://theconversation.com/more-than-a-quarter-of-canadian-teens-have-experienced-sexual-violence-online-265625

October 5, 2025

Why is Canada quiet on the International Criminal Court while recognizing Palestine?

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Laszlo Sarkany, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Western University

Canada has formally recognized the state of Palestine, drawing the ire of United States President Donald Trump.

At the same time, the U.S. is continuing to oppose the International Criminal Court (ICC) by sanctioning several of its judges, citing their involvement in investigations related to alleged war crimes by American and Israeli officials.

The ICC investigates and prosecutes individuals for international crimes that include genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Despite Canada’s historic support for the ICC, the current government has yet to officially defend it against the recent accusations, even though one of its sanctioned judges, Kimberly Prost, is Canadian.

American threats

There are two key questions worth asking in relation to these shifts in Canadian foreign policy:

Why did Canada recognize Palestine despite signals from the U.S. that the move would impact its trade relationship?
What does Canada’s silence on the sanctions against the ICC suggest about how and why Canadian foreign policy in relation to the court may have changed?

Recognizing Palestine placed Canada’s policy — and its trade negotiations — on a collision course with the U.S. as American officials called the move “reckless …and undermines prospects for peace.”

The stakes seemed even higher when Trump linked Canada’s recognition of Palestine with trade deals. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, mentioned Canada in his warning that if American allies comply with the ICC arrest warrants against Israeli officials, the U.S. will “crush” the economies in question.

The recognition seems to be a substantial shift in Canadian foreign policy. For a considerable amount of time, at the very least stretching back to the days of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government — Canada has been a staunch supporter of Israel.

Canada even publicly said on the international stage in 2014 that it didn’t recognize Palestine.

Canada’s lack of support for the ICC

Mark Carney’s Liberal government, however, has yet to push back against the U.S. attacks on the ICC. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand did note that she has “utmost confidence” in Prost and praised the court, but made no reference to the American sanctions against her.

Canada has missed two opportunities to support the ICC: one in July 2025, when other states, members of civil society groups and international organizations defended the court during its Assembly of States Parties meetings in New York.

The second arose during the 59th meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2025.

What could explain these shifts and apparent snubs?

The middle ground

There has been extensive domestic and global pressure to keep the plight of Palestinians caught up in the humanitarian catastrophe in the spotlight, and to recognize Palestine.

Canada has attempted to chart a middle ground on the issue, accusing Hamas of terrorizing both Palestinian and Israeli civilians.

Canadian allies like the U.K. and the European Union, along with other like-minded states, declared in July that Palestine is a state.

On the question of why Canada has not voiced public support of the ICC since Carney was elected in April 2025 — as France, Belgium, Slovenia and the UN have done — there are two possible explanations.

On the surface, it might be because the government is still weighing its options and isn’t ready to act. If so, however, its silence suggests a lack of support of the ICC given Canada’s previous backing of the court until March 2025, during Justin Trudeau’s years in office.

The ‘value of our strength’

Another explanation could involve Canada’s commitment to NATO and its new, broader foreign policy aims.

The Canadian government has promised it will allocate five per cent of its GDP to NATO by 2035. In the same declaration, Carney noted that “global conflict [is] becoming more frequent and volatile.”

Therefore, the federal government could be adopting a pragmatic position and aiming to prioritize security and sovereignty from now on. A wider global engagement for the Canadian military would mean that its service members could, at least conceptually, come under closer scrutiny by the ICC, which steps in when national judicial systems are unable or unwilling to hold perpetrators accountable.

During the so-called Somalia Affair in the early 1990s, Canada did prosecute its own. The government went as far as to disband the unit the soldiers involved belonged to. But Canada was not, in the early 1990s, bound by the Rome Statute of the ICC until 2002. The statute established four core international crimes — genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression — and stipulated they aren’t subject to any statute of limitations.

Current global geostrategic dynamics are also very different today than they were in the 1990s. Canada could be anticipating a much broader military engagement.

The pragmatism explanation is supported by the latest declaration Anand made in her recent speech to the United Nations General Assembly as Canada’s foreign affairs minister.

She noted that the three priorities of the Carney government will be “security and defence,” “economic resilience” and “core values.” Anand, a former defence minister, concluded her speech — echoing Carney’s words — that Canada will be defined not “by the strength of our values, but by the value of our strength.”

Laszlo Sarkany does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Why is Canada quiet on the International Criminal Court while recognizing Palestine? – https://theconversation.com/why-is-canada-quiet-on-the-international-criminal-court-while-recognizing-palestine-265930

October 5, 2025

Politically aggressive social media users are creating most of the anti-immigrant content

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Nicholas A. R. Fraser, Senior Research Associate , Toronto Metropolitan University

Most of us, whether we admit it or not, engage in a great deal of passive scrolling through social media daily.

And while the platforms have proliferated for years, experts are only now beginning to demonstrate their full impact on our attention, mental health, spending habits and politics.

Despite the benefits, social media is also creating new problems. A pressing concern is the dissemination of misinformation by political extremists, a trend amplified by the unprecedented reach of platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). When it comes to issues like immigration, many activists, experts and pundits point to social media as a vehicle for the spread of prejudice, conspiracy theories and false claims targeting immigrant and minority populations.

Even before launching his 2016 presidential bid, for example, Donald Trump used Twitter to share messages attacking immigrants and ethnic minorities with millions of people, giving him the power to dominate news cycles and shape public policy.

Does social media make people more xenophobic?

Polarizing platforms

For decades, scholars studying how people consume information about immigration have argued that print and TV news stories often portray the economic and social impact of immigration negatively.

Studies on major American newspapers and news stations show that traditional media coverage has encouraged prejudice toward Latin American immigrants and Muslims.

Does social media follow this trend? Social scientists are beginning to disagree.

Scholars point to racist and anti-immigration messages on social media as evidence that platforms like Facebook, X and Reddit encourage users to speak freely without the constraints of social norms to a broad and diverse audience.

Other studies argue that social media creates uniquely polarizing environments where users organize themselves into political tribes that fight one another using aggressive dialogue. Even in Canada — a country often touted as pro-immigration — social media has allowed users to attack immigrants and minorities.

Users’ attitudes, however, may matter more than the specific platform.

Politically aggressive users

Recent studies from the United States and Western Europe show that social media attracts politically aggressive users who often do most of the talking in heated online conversations.

Based on my recent research on Canadian X users, I found similar results. I analyzed roughly 13,000 English-language posts discussing immigration and Canada’s housing crisis in 2023. Unsurprisingly, I discovered that many users blamed immigrants for a lack of affordable housing, including influencers with tens of thousands of followers.

In August 2023, discussions about housing on X peaked, with 3,638 posts mentioning both immigration and housing. This significant increase in online conversation coincided with federal government’s public comments linking international students to the housing crisis. The data supports the idea that Canadians were actively discussing the housing crisis in relation to immigration during this time.

Does this mean that Canadian X users are now seething with hatred for immigrants? While some are, a closer look reveals the partisan nature of these posts.

When I examined users’ identities and networks, it became clear that their anti-immigration messages were often a means of criticizing Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government. In other words, right-wing users (with large and small followings) were chiefly responsible for creating and sharing these posts, including People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier.

For instance, Fringe Albertan (about 2,500 followers in August 2023) posted in response to a post by Rebel News:

“@RebelNewsOnline Its a lie! Typical Liberal. Hes lying bc Canada is a UN member, and as a member, has signed onto an immigration pact to flood Canada with migrants, destroying our economy, social network, housing, and culture. #EndUNMembership @UCPCaucus @CPC_HQ @Buffalo_AB @BuffaloPartySK”_

Similarly, lloyd (about 50 followers at the time) posted in response to a post by CTV News:

“@CTVNews Thanks CTV News it’s no wonder why they are leaving as Canada is so poorly governed ! Housing shortage when Immigration brings millions of Migrants and never checked to see how many homes they had and shortage worst ever for Canada! Worst blunder in Canadian History! HELP.”

Right-wing social media users significantly contributed to public discourse blaming immigrants for Canada’s problems.

Some might argue polarizing content is simply a reflection of free speech.

This is true to some degree, but recent studies suggest online polarization can also threaten free societies. Algorithms designed to focus users’ attention on threats and conflict can reliably make users engage with content; this is what makes social media platforms potentially dangerous. Fortunately, users are far from powerless.

Reducing online polarization

While figures like Trump show that social media can be used to spread prejudice to mass audiences, it also matters that users often self-select into networks they like.

New studies make clear that users’ socio-political context, partisanship and behaviour seem to matter as much as the platform itself.

It turns out both platforms and users are responsible for online polarization.

What can we do about social media platforms?

Ultimately, we need socially responsible online platforms that focus less on producing outrage and division to attract users. This means including researchers, governments and civil society in designing social media interfaces and algorithms to establish reasonable community standards for sharing information and regulating users’ behaviour.

But we cannot wait for politicians to solve this problem. Even if we get platforms that focus less on outrage, trolls will still exist.

Social media’s rapid pace and the lack of consensus over online behaviour create ethical dilemmas for users everywhere. For example, many people passively scroll and react to content they skimmed, but if conflict arises later in the thread, many users are unsure how to respond or whether they should respond at all.

To see less polarizing social media content, we need to both consciously choose what platforms we wish to join (and why), and we need to cultivate better ways to handle online conflict.

Nicholas A. R. Fraser does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Politically aggressive social media users are creating most of the anti-immigrant content – https://theconversation.com/politically-aggressive-social-media-users-are-creating-most-of-the-anti-immigrant-content-264750

October 5, 2025

Many autistic students are denied a full education — here’s what we need for inclusive schools

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Vanessa Fong, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of British Columbia

As students settle into the school year, the reality is that many will not experience full inclusion in the classroom.

Every child has the right to an education under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet, for many autistic students in Canada, this promise falls short.

Our recent study published in Autism Research uncovers why so many autistic students are denied their right to a full education and highlights what must change to make schools truly inclusive.

What exclusion looks like

Exclusion takes many forms. Sometimes, it’s overt, with students being told they cannot attend school for a period of time.

More often, it is informal or partial, where students are told to come on modified hours or days or sent home early because there aren’t enough staff to support their needs, or they aren’t permitted to participate in certain activities, like field trips.

In our online survey of 412 primary caregivers of autistic children in Ontario, primarily recruited through Autism Ontario, 42.3 per cent reported that their autistic children had experienced some form of school exclusion.

These exclusions have cascading effects on families, forcing parents to miss work and jeopardize their employment. They also drive some households closer to poverty.

Previous research from our team has indicated that many parents of autistic children, particularly mothers, struggle to maintain full-time employment as they need to be available to care for their children during school hours.

Powerful predictors of exclusion

Our survey also identified several important factors related to school exclusion.

Something that predicted lower rates of school exclusion was greater parental satisfaction with the child’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) — a legally mandated document meant to outline supports and accommodations for students with disabilities.

Analysis of parent responses to the open-ended survey questions revealed two critical factors contributing to exclusion:

Bullying, where autistic children are victimized by peers, leaving them isolated, afraid for their safety and more likely to avoid school;
A lack of specialized training and resources for school staff. This lack of training and resources leaves autistic students without the support they need to participate and engage fully in school life.

These findings echo international patterns. Autistic students face increased risk of exclusion because of sensory overload, lack of staff training and the absence of genuinely supportive environments.

The illusion of inclusion

The assumption that simply integrating autistic students into mainstream settings guarantees inclusion is not only misleading, but harmful. As many advocates warn, true inclusion demands a fundamental shift in attitudes, environments and policies.

Current failures are seen in the use of physical restraint and seclusion practices as well as insufficient funding and under-staffing that leave children’s needs unmet and their safety at risk.

Parents’ responses also indicated concerns about IEPs that are written but not followed, and lack of effectiveness or practical application of existing anti-bullying policies that leave students vulnerable.

What must change?

If we are serious about inclusion, several steps are critical.

Schools must develop robust anti-bullying initiatives that foster a culture of acceptance, empathy and understanding of neurodivergence. In Ontario, the Ministry of Education requires all school boards to have bullying prevention and intervention policies.

While previous research has examined the effectiveness of school bullying policies more broadly, research is needed to assess their impact within Ontario schools, particularly in relation to neurodivergent students.

Staff training must be comprehensive, mandatory and ongoing, centred on understanding the needs and strengths of autistic and neurodivergent students. Indeed, previous research has shown that targeted professional development can strengthen teachers’ confidence and preparedness to support autistic students.

Greater collaboration is needed, with families and autistic youth being real partners in IEP planning and schools held accountable for following through. Classrooms must be tailored to be sensory-friendly and flexible, providing predictable routines and spaces for self-regulation.

Importantly, increased funding is also necessary. School staff, such as education assistants, are often required to support far too many students, with a lack of replacements when they are absent.

These issues ripple out to affect the entire classroom. A stable workforce of skilled staff with specialized training who are compensated competitively is essential if inclusion is to be a reality and not just a slogan.

A call to rethink inclusion

The latest estimates from the Public Health Agency of Canada indicate that about one in 50 children and youth aged one to 17 are diagnosed with autism.

In other words, just about every classroom will likely have at least one autistic student, among other neurodivergences.

Integrating these students fully and meaningfully is important not just for their education, but also for the betterment of the broader classroom culture, as well as families’ employment security and economic well-being.

In addition to exclusions, our previous research found that many families elect to keep their autistic children home, or enrol them in alternative programming, because they are unable to find an appropriate placement within a public school.

The current system is not working for too many; systematic improvements are needed to ensure that all children and their families are supported to reach their full potential.

We must start by listening to educators, parents and autistic students to understand these students’ diverse needs, and then put the resources in place to make these accommodations a reality. Until then, many children and youth will remain either partially or fully excluded from a safe, meaningful and reliable education.

Vanessa Fong receives funding as a Postdoctoral Fellow from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Michael Smith Health Research BC, and from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council through her Research Associate position at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Janet McLaughlin receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Margaret Schneider receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

– ref. Many autistic students are denied a full education — here’s what we need for inclusive schools – https://theconversation.com/many-autistic-students-are-denied-a-full-education-heres-what-we-need-for-inclusive-schools-265147